The Garden Life of a Little Gardener

After Mr. Zou talked about the topic of the competition, Mr. Qi added the rules of the competition later.

"All the yellow-lipped fish used in the competition weigh more than 12 catties, come from the same waters, and all of them are male. You will draw lots later to select the ingredients in order. The title of the competition is the yellow-lipped fish banquet, which requires [-] finished dishes and one fish to complete the feast. I don’t need to say more about the rules of the noodle dishes. The fish banquet requires a theme, the theme chef draws up his own, and the dishes are required to be closely related to the theme. The sound rang, and those who did not finish the fish feast were automatically eliminated on the third floor. The rules are these, and the lottery begins now."

The box that was used to draw the numbers of the chefs in the first round was picked up by the service staff again. Chef Bao and the others drew the numbers one at a time according to the order of the positions. The one who got 1 was the first to pick the ingredients, and the one who got 2 was the first. Two, the last one to draw 3.

Seeing his grandson go up first to pick the ingredients, Elder Zou squinted his eyes and said, "After the ingredients are selected, you have half an hour to think about how to make this banquet dish. After thinking about it, put your The name of the table banquet tells us, and then we can go to the side dish room to pick the side dishes. The order of picking the side dishes is reversed from that of the main ingredients, the person who picks the fish last picks the side dishes first, and so on .”

The logistics supervisor responsible for the purchase of ingredients in Mingyuelou, who is also Chef Bao and his uncle, said with a smile: "If any of you need ingredients that are not available in the side dish room, remember to tell me, as long as they are available in our country I guarantee that I will find the best quality and deliver it to you within two hours."

While speaking, Fox Zou had already finished picking his main ingredients, and he picked the largest one among the three yellow-lipped fish.

After him, it was George who walked up to pick the ingredients. Mr. Zou looked at the foreigner, and he was standing on the far right. Therefore, Chef Bao, who was the first to draw lots, said in his heart that he could also draw with a one-third chance. In the end, what kind of luck is this?

This kid's luck in drawing lots is still as bad as ever.

After George went up, he didn't hesitate at all, and chose the fatter fish among the remaining two yellow-lipped fish. In fact, if they were dragged together for comparison, that fish was also the fattest among the three big fish.

Two of the three fish were picked, and the rest, Chef Bao, had nothing to pick, so he walked over and brought it back straight away.

After they each took their staple food, the competition officially began. The three chefs squatted down together and began to study their main ingredients.

As top chefs, they have their own way even when faced with ingredients they don't know or have never seen before.

Hearing, touching, touching, probing, seeing, smelling, and tasting are the basic ways for chefs to understand ingredients.

Look, this is easy to understand, it is to observe the ingredients carefully with your eyes.

Smell, learn about ingredients through smell, and remember their smells for later use.

Listen, put your ears close to the ingredients, tap the ingredients regularly with your fingers, and judge the material tightness and internal structure of the ingredients with the crisp and dull echo.

The three tricks of touching, touching, and probing complement each other. They all use hands to touch the ingredients and feel the fish structure of the ingredients.

Tasting is the ultimate trick. When you are not sure what an ingredient tastes like, there is nothing better than tasting it yourself.

So the three chefs, like scientific researchers doing experiments, uphold the rigorous spirit and attitude, explored their main ingredients bit by bit from the beginning to the end, and finally chose a place on the back of the fish at the same time , Carefully cut open the fish skin, peel a small piece of fish meat from the inside and put it in your mouth to taste.

The relatives and friends upstairs are watching the time nervously, because Mr. Qi said just now that it only takes half an hour to identify the main ingredients and determine the theme of the meal.

As for the chefs, since they inspected the main dishes, they squatted on the ground one by one, contemplating the big fish allotted to them, and they hadn't changed their movements for a long time.

Some family members didn't know what to do, so they turned to the side and asked knowledgeable people: "Uncle, why are they so quiet?"

The middle-aged man beside him said, pointing fingers, "Shh, don't make a sound, don't disturb their thinking."

The man shrank his head subconsciously when he heard the words, and asked in a low voice, "What are you thinking about?"

"Didn't you hear just now, Mr. Qi said that everyone's yellow-lipped fish banquet must have a theme. Do you know what the theme means?"

The man shook his head when he heard the words, he really didn't know, he himself had nothing to do with the chef world, he was just pulled over by his wife to join in the fun.

The middle-aged man who asked the question shook his head slightly when he saw this and said: "The theme is the purpose of a banquet. Just like writing an essay, you must have a title. The theme is the title of the banquet. The theme of your birthday banquet can be loose Crane prolongs the year, longevity is boundless, if you make a banquet for a happy event, the theme can be a hundred years of marriage, love for a lifetime, in short, the theme is the central idea of ​​a table banquet, after the theme is set, the dishes you make must fit this central idea.”

"Oh, I understand now, it's just how to do it, it's not difficult."

"It's not difficult? I can see that you really don't understand anything. Do you know what is a noodle dish? I don't know. I have always eaten noodles. I have seen a table with heavy dishes or heavy methods. Vegetables? For that one fish, you have to make twelve dishes, both hot and cold, and you can’t repeat the recipe, which is making things difficult.”

"Wow, the three people below should be the disciples and grandchildren of Mingyuelou. The requirements are so harsh, are they relatives?"

"I can't help it. This is Mingyue Tower. Is it because of your reputation that you can stand out in Suizhou? Don't be cruel now. If you can't choose the most suitable old man in the future, you can't feel at ease when you leave."

No matter how noisy the people upstairs are, the chefs downstairs are still carrying out their steps in an orderly manner.

Half an hour later, Mr. Qi announced: "It's time, everyone, in the order of drawing lots, please each tell the theme of your yellow-lipped fish banquet this time."

Zou Kai stood up when he heard the words, shook the shattered ice sticking to his body and said, "The theme of my yellow-lipped fish feast is national beauty and heavenly fragrance."

"National beauty, this name sounds strange? How does it feel like a theme used in a beauty pageant?"

The guy who didn't know anything and just came here to join in the fun looked around, then leaned over to the middle-aged man and asked: "Brother, Akai said he wants to be a national beauty, what does that mean, you know?" ?"

This time the well-informed middle-aged man also had to shake his head and said: "I don't know, I don't know, I really don't understand this time."

"The theme of Zou Kai's Yellow Lipped Fish Banquet is beautiful and heavenly, George, what's your theme?"

The foreigner George's Chinese is just average. In order to express the meaning of his theme more clearly, some foreign languages ​​will be inserted in the spoken Chinese from time to time.

Mr. Qi, who couldn't understand foreign languages, had a dark face. He didn't know how to change it. He couldn't translate.

Zou Kai, who was standing beside him, rolled his eyes silently to the sky when he saw this, muttered a damn foreign romanticism, and then said: "Uncle Master, George said that the theme of his yellow-lipped fish feast is love."

"The theme of George's Yellow Lips Fish Feast is love, what are you?"

Chef Bao’s side was much happier. He heard someone ask him to poke the belly of the main dish at the end, feel the strength of the fish belly, stood up and said, “The theme of my fish feast is homecoming.”

"The themes of the three contestants have been determined. According to the regulations, Ah Guan, you can go to the side dishes to choose the side dishes."

After Chef Bao entered the side dish room, Zou Kai quietly approached the gentleman who was in charge of purchasing the back kitchen and said, "Uncle, some of the side dishes I want to use are not available in the back kitchen, so I can only ask you to help me. gone."

Hearing this, his little uncle smiled and asked: "Akai, you knew that the food you wanted was not there before you even went to the side dish room? You must know that for today's Doucai, your little uncle and I were in the market yesterday. I ran around for a day, and now there are more than 1000 kinds of ingredients in the side dish room, I dare not say what I want, but there is no shortage of what I should have."

Zou Kai laughed lowly when he heard this and said in a low voice: "Uncle, it's not that my nephew doesn't trust your ability, but that some of the things I want to use are not what we use every day. If you don't believe me, just listen to what I said. Is it there or not in the side dish room.”

The little uncle heard the words and leaned over, Zou Kai whispered a few names in his ear, but the young uncle who was very confident opened his eyes and said at this time: "Hey, really not. But you want these things What to do? Oh, the beauty of the country, I understand, don’t worry, it will be ready for you within an hour.”

"Troubling you."

"It's okay, I'm just doing this job. Now I'm more and more interested in your table of beauty and fragrance."

While speaking, Chef Bao had already come out of the side dish room, and the things he picked had been sent directly to the kitchen.

After Chef Bao came out, George followed him in. He stayed in the side dish room for about ten minutes and picked out a lot of things, but he was not very satisfied. He found Zou Kai's little uncle Keep saying: "ROSE, give me ROSE."

"What, do you want shredded pork? Yes, there are all kinds of meat in the side dish room. You can cut the shredded pork yourself."

Pfft, the spectators upstairs laughed when they heard this reply, and someone with good English quickly shouted from above: "Master, what foreigners want is roses, edible roses, not shredded pork. You didn't Have you seen the Titanic, the heroine in it is named after that."

"What am I doing watching that foreign movie when I'm free? You want to eat roses, right? There are in the cutting room, and there are rose cakes in the white case."

"NO, I don't want to do it, I want fresh rose petals, the kind of big, bright red, expressing love."

George talked and gestured there for a long time, and the little uncle in charge of the purchase finally figured out what he wanted.

Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he waved his hand and said: "Understood, what this kid wants is to eat Chinese roses. This shredded meat confuses me. Okay, I see, it just happens to be with Akai’s things are on the way, and I’ll bring them back to you in an hour.”